Account hacked Gold stolen - Blizzard won't refund

Post by themunge

A few days ago my account was hacked. I noticed this pretty soon after it happened, when I tried logging in but my password wouldn't work. After resetting the password I logged back in and found that all my gold was gone. I raised a ticket to speak to a GM about it, but when the GM got back to me they told me that the only logins to my account had been from my usual address and therefore my account was going to be permanently banned.

Needless to say this was incredibly upsetting to not only be the victim of hacking but to lose my entire game as well. After raising numerous tickets and speaking to Blizzard CS I finally managed to get them to re-instate my account but they're refusing to return my gold. I'm still currently pursuing this in the hopes of having my gold returned but so far have had no luck at all.

"The reason why we are not restoring the gold in this situtation is because there is no hack or access on the account, that's why the account was also suspected for it. This means that there is no proof of any sign of a hack, and everything either points towads yoru knowledge of this, or your PC being used for the actions - You are responable for both of these."

It seems to be the case that no matter what I say to Blizzard they won't listen to my arguments despite saying I could prove that the gold wasn't transferred by myself and I could get my ISP to provide proof.

If anyone has any advice on how I can get Blizzard to deal with this I would be very happy to hear and I also wanted to know if anyone else who's recently been a victim of hacking has had the same issue.

Post by Hoddie

Why was your account suspended? It is likely for this reason.

Post by themunge

Blizzard said the only activity on my account was from my home address so they either think I hacked myself or that I'm a gold trader...

Post by SoCalWoWGal

From the information that you are presenting it seems that someone in your household accessed the account. Perhaps a roomate or a sibling? Was your password easy to guess? Did you have an authenticator on the account and kept that authenticator secure as well?

Blizzard, to my knowledge, will not accept any outside "proof" that you may have. Blizzard has all of the records as to what ISP accessed the account and they are saying that it was the same as yours, thus you need to figure out where the breach in security was and take measures to secure your account.

Post by themunge

I've already taken the steps mentioned above. However, there is no one in my household who would even know how to transfer the gold (family members only, who don't play any games), and as Blizzard confirmed that the gold was traded to 'known gold traders' it's impossible that someone else in my household did this.

Post by SoCalWoWGal

I do not see anything in your post that shows that Blizzard comfirmed anything, other than the account was suspended, an investigation was made and the suspension was overturned.

Thinking completely out of the box here, is it possible that someone was visiting your house that also plays WoW could have accessed your account?

Post by themunge

Initially blizzard wouldn't tell me when the transfer had happened - it was only during my second call to CS that they told me that the transfer had happened around 01:00 on the 21st August. At the time I was the only person in the house still up and there were no wow playing visitors. I am 100% positive that the transfer was done by the hacker that had somehow managed to clone my IP address (no idea how this is possible). This is the only explanation which fits the facts.

I had previously considered that a piece of malware may have allowed someone to remotely control my computer but I was using it at the time if someone had been doing so I would have seen it.

Post by themunge

The password should have been impossible to guess being a combination of numbers and letters, and I had not told anyone what it was regardless.

Post by Hoddie

Sorry but you're not making much sense.

Why EXACTLY was your account suspended? They don't suspend accounts because you were hacked, particularly if there's no record of a strange IP address being used to access the account?

If I've understood this correctly you believe you were hacked and that your gold was taken. Blizzard says all access to your account was via your normal IP address so they believe you or someone you know had something to do with the gold disappearing. Why, if this is all true, would Blizzard suspend your account? Something else must have happened and they must have told you the reason.

Post by themunge

Not sure what your not understanding Hoddie, Blizzard banned my account because they think I'm the one trading gold.

GM responses:

"Solved via in-game chat. Verified golddistribution to hackers anbd goldsellers. More information sent out via email and suspended from the game."

"Your account was suspended now for 48 hours (I overturned the ban) due to online trading activities, which is against the Terms of Use (http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/legal/wow_tou.html). We take this issue very seriously and would not look to re-activate this account under any circumstances.

It is with regret that we have to take this type of action, however it is in the best interest of the World of Warcraft community as a whole, and for the integrity of the game, that we have cancelled your access to the World of Warcraft servers.

Online trading refers to the exchange of in-game content for real world money, and includes, but is not limited to, the sale or purchase of gold, the sale or purchase of experience in the form of powerlevelling, and the sale or purchase of honor points, reputation or items. Further details concerning online trading can be found under section "2. Additional License Limitations" in our Terms of Use.

Also, the other clauses apply, for example sharing your account details. Account access is the responsibility of the account owner and account sharing is against our Terms of Use. Therefore, should you believe someone other than yourself (the account owner) has committed this violation of the Terms of Use with your account, these sanctions would still apply, as our action is taken against the account, not the individual.

Please be aware that our investigation methods are strictly confidential and, as such, the evidence in question cannot be exposed to our customers."

"The reason why we are not restoring the gold in this situtation is because there is no hack or access on the account, that's why the account was also suspected for it. This means that there is no proof of any sign of a hack, and everything either points towads yoru knowledge of this, or your PC being used for the actions - You are responable for both of these.

At no point did the location of login on the account change. This edivence is correct as standards and will not be overturned - Once the suspension expires you will be able to login again as normal. Consider it a final warning and if such actions happen again on the account, there is a very strong chance it will be banned permanently.

The action is set to expire late tomorrow (26th) afternoon/early evening. You'll need to login to your account again before it updates on battle.net, as the website will show that you are still suspended until the client is logged in."

Post by Hoddie

Maybe I glossed over it in your earlier posts but I think that's the first time you've said your account was suspended for trading gold. I apologise if not.

If they've flat out told you that they have no record of a login on your account outside of your regular pattern of access, you're pretty much stuck with their response. If you have a wireless network I guess it's possible that somebody nearby (a room mate, neighbour, etc.) could have done something shady but obviously they'd need your account details and even if that's what happened I don't think you'll get any joy from Blizzard as the security of your own account is your responsibility.

As difficult as this may sound you're just gonna need to chalk this up to experience and move on. Ensure you attach an authenticator to prevent future repeats.

Actually I thought of another possible - have you ever had a second account or could a friend/relative have registered and used a second account at your address (and possibly in your name)? It could be the transgression was committed on another account and they've simply banned all the accounts at the same address.

Post by themunge

I do have a second account but it's only a trial account so is unable to do things like send mail etc. I don't think it's possible that anyone nearby would be able to jump onto our wifi as it is secure. I am prepared for the probability that I won't get my gold back but in that outcome I'll unlikely want to carry on playing. 250k gold build up over 2 years is simply too much to lose and I have no desire to start building up gold again from scratch. Regarding the authenticator - I did use to have one on my account but had to remove it after I was having problems with the phone it was on. If I do get my gold back then I'll buy the one you can have on your key ring instead but in researching this matter I've come across posts from people that said that hackers have gotten around authenticators or removed them before they hacked an account.

I understand that my own accounts privacy is my responsibility but as I'm certain the trade was not done by anyone from the household or someone piggy backing to our wifi - I don't know how I could have prevented this action.

Blizzard need to take better steps at stopping hackers and as something like this can completely ruin the game that you love playing.

I'm gonna keep marking the ticket as unresolved until I can get somewhere with this.

Post by Jkpman

I understand that my own accounts privacy is my responsibility but as I'm certain the trade was not done by anyone from the household or someone piggy backing to our wifi - I don't know how I could have prevented this action.

Blizzard need to take better steps at stopping hackers and as something like this can completely ruin the game that you love playing.

I'm gonna keep marking the ticket as unresolved until I can get somewhere with this.

They take all steps possible.As for the WiFi comment, that is entirely possible, Right now I can see a couple of unsecured connections in my building.

When it comes to computer security there is no certainty.Blizzard know it happened at your house, There is no magic here, someone close to you (proximity) got you a ban.

They are not going to back down on this, so it's pointless for you to keep wasting time and their resources by continuing to put in tickets.

Suck it up, learn your lesson, and either decide to play or not. (250k isn't a massive amount of Gold to recoup these days)

Post by lonewolfe31705

I understand that my own accounts privacy is my responsibility but as I'm certain the trade was not done by anyone from the household or someone piggy backing to our wifi - I don't know how I could have prevented this action.

Blizzard need to take better steps at stopping hackers and as something like this can completely ruin the game that you love playing.

I'm gonna keep marking the ticket as unresolved until I can get somewhere with this.

They take all steps possible.As for the WiFi comment, that is entirely possible, Right now I can see a couple of unsecured connections in my building.

When it comes to computer security there is no certainty.Blizzard know it happened at your house, There is no magic here, someone close to you (proximity) got you a ban.

They are not going to back down on this, so it's pointless for you to keep wasting time and their resources by continuing to put in tickets.

Suck it up, learn your lesson, and either decide to play or not. (250k isn't a massive amount of Gold to recoup these days)

This times everything. You marking a ticket unresolved even though they have repeatedly told you no, is going to do nothing but make the CSR mad because they have to document it every time they talk to you.

I know personally, that if I was a CSR and read that we had solid proof there was no access to your account outside of your normal activites and IP, that we already revoked a perma-ban down to a 48 hour suspension and you were still whining about gold (that you or someone you know/let play your account obviously sold or mailed to someone) , I would tell you in the nicest way possible to stop being a moron and be thankful you still have an account.

All that being said, stop wasting everyone's time over what is just a mediocre amount of gold(I know I make that every week in WoW by playing the AH a few hours a day.) so that the Blizz CSR team can deal with real issues. I know a year ago that my GF's account was hacked, (Blizzard could tell me the exact IP that we had logged into for 6 months straight and then the hackers IP...so yes, they can tell you that it was someone at your house or not who did the transfer) it took Blizz about an hour to return eveything in the gbank, all her stuff, all her gold, and even left the 80 stacks of leather the hacker farmed up.

Post by Araxom

Hi all, just got back from my first vacation in a looooong time. Apologies for the delayed response.

Firstly, now would be a good time to pitch the authenticator and the SMS Protect - both are excellent utilities to help protect the accounts. Now, to summarize the notes here - basically, we want to keep our players in the game, however our system can and will lock an account down if it looks like it's being accessed from a location that is not generally in the area of where the account is associated. Resetting the password is generally sufficient to get around this. Now, if an account is reported as compromised, we'll do our best to look at the activity on the account and provide the necessary restorations. These are not guaranteed to get an account back in the exact shape it was in, and the sooner the issue is reported, the better shape the account will likely be in after we attend to it.

As was previously stated in the thread, if we cannot verify the account was accessed from another location, then this is considered a domestic compromise, (i.e. shared account). It would not matter if the account owner had knowledge of the issue or not, as we would be unable to verify that either way. I hope that sheds more light on the issue. I'll check back on the post in case there are other questions that I can speak to.

Regards,AraxomBlizzard Customer Support

Post by themunge

It no longer matters as I've quit due to complete dis-satisfaction with Blizz / WOW CS. 250k gold may not seem like a lot to some ppl but to me who has no interest in farming gold and just slowly built up a nice amount over 2.5 years it's a lot. Completely pissed off with Blizzard.

Also - lonewolfe31705 if I'm wasting so much of your time with this post then don't bother to comment.

Post by ElhonnaDS

It no longer matters as I've quit due to complete dis-satisfaction with Blizz / WOW CS. 250k gold may not seem like a lot to some ppl but to me who has no interest in farming gold and just slowly built up a nice amount over 2.5 years it's a lot. Completely pissed off with Blizzard.

It's not Blizzard's fault because YOUR IP address was the weak link- it has nothing to do with any of their systems. Either someone logged into your account physically at your computer, or your wireless router was compromised and someone was able to access your computer and passwords that way. It doesn't make sense that someone would go through all the work of accessing and cloning your IP for the purposes of stealing 250k gold, because they'd have to do that for every person they hacked, and that's a lot of extra work for not a lot of reward (in the overall scheme of illicit gold trading, 250 k from one person isn't worth that much). If they have proof that it happened from your IP address, then your assurances that it wasn't you isn't sufficient proof for them to restore gold. If every person who ever sold gold, or shared an account, got everything back they "lost" based on their promise that it wasn't them, the economy would be shot to heck and there would be no incentive for anyone to abide by the rules of the TOS/EULA. They can tell it came from your address, or someone logged into your IP, and so it was a favor even to lift the ban.

Imagine it this way. Lets say you're working for Amazon.com, and you have someone who places several expensive orders on their account. The orders go through, and are shipped to the same address the person has used for the last 10 years, and because of the value, all of the sellers used delivery services with proof of delivery requirements- i.e., they all had to be signed for. If the customer called, and said that the last $4000 worth of purchases weren't made by them, and they don't want to pay for them, you'd investigate. If you could tell that all of the items were shipped to and signed for at the same address as the account holder, there is no way that you would refund the money. Because while it is possible that someone unknown to them somehow gained access not only to their credit card info, but also sat in front of their house and intercepted the packages, it's much more likely that they're trying to scam you. And so the one person to whom that actually happened has their request denied because of the 500 other people who are trying to get free stuff. It's not a problem with Amazon's system- it's a matter of most likely scenario, and not letting your business get damaged by letting scammers take advantage on the off chance that someone is in the unlikely situation they claim to be in.

While I'm not encouraging you to not quit the game- you probably should- I'm just informing you that the reason that they won't return your gold is valid, and smart business, and I'd think less of them as a company if they didn't take a stance like this in the face of evidence that it was the same location. If you really did lose it without your knowledge and not to a friend of a sibling who logged in while you were away (which is extremely unlikely, given the information Blizzard says they have) then the lesson you should take from this is not that Blizzard protocols are bad, but that you are doing something very wrong in terms on internet security. Because if someone has that much access to your system, they could steal your credit card and social security info, they could use your cloned IP to download illegal content or have illegal chat conversations (not just pirated stuff- things that would alert the NSA and law enforcement, and land you on MSNBC), use your IP to commit credit card fraud, etc. They could land you in jail, ruin your credit, and/or ruin your life. Whether or not you get your gold back should be the last thing you think about when someone has cloned your IP and has access to your passwords and other information on your computer.

Post by Jkpman

It no longer matters as I've quit due to complete dis-satisfaction with Blizz / WOW CS. 250k gold may not seem like a lot to some ppl but to me who has no interest in farming gold and just slowly built up a nice amount over 2.5 years it's a lot. Completely pissed off with Blizzard.

Also - lonewolfe31705 if I'm wasting so much of your time with this post then don't bother to comment.

It's like banging your head against a brick wall trying to explain even basics to you.

Your account security lies solely with YOU.You failed. You wouldn't leave your bike unlocked outside and then go to the bike store and demand a new one when it got stolen, so stop being an idiot and demanding Blizzard refund items or gold lost on an account you failed to secure.

Post by pod32

In my opinion Blizzard doesn't do enough to prevent account theft and the ugly things that occurbecause of it. They say they take a huge stance against the selling of gold or other items that are time consuming or hard to get. These two things are highly related and both should be considered theft in a court of law. The gold sellers are selling a product generated by Blizzard under a copyrighted game and making themselves money without written permission. Plus, has it ever been researched as to how they are obtaining the gold and other in-game items? Multi-boxing, account theft, or other things that Blizzard supposedly says is a no would be my guess. Blizzard seems to only do what they have to and not the littlest bit more. SusanExpress sells wow gold and has done so for years now. If SusanExpress didn't pay for all those accounts and just had one or two I would imagine Blizzard would put an end to the website. But because I love WoW and the negatives are few and far between, I'll keep entering my mobile authenticator code, and changing my password every so often. I've found that along with never buying gold, never believing I randomly won something in-game and all I have to do is enter my account info (lol), and never logging on any public computer to check anything battle.net or Blizzard will prevent a hack. I've been playing since Burning Crusades release and have seen my share of friends get hack-jacked, but taking those VERY EASY precautions I mentioned have saved my account and gold.

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